Overview

• Igor Babuschkin stepped down from his role at xAI on August 13 to found Babuschkin Ventures, which will fund AI safety research and invest in early-stage startups.
• Babuschkin credited his experience building xAI’s engineering teams and the Memphis supercluster for shaping his focus on responsible AI development.
• Elon Musk thanked Babuschkin on X for his contributions to xAI’s rapid growth since its launch in 2023.
• Babuschkin’s departure follows high-profile failures of xAI’s Grok chatbot, including antisemitic rants, reliance on Musk’s personal opinions, and a deepfake video feature.
• Despite these issues, xAI’s models remain among the top performers in benchmarks and recently secured major government contracts.